The Least of These

S. I. McMillen, in his book None of These Diseases, tells a story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower."

We talk a lot about leadership these days. And for good reason. Leadership is important. Pastor and Author Craig Groeshel often says “Leadership is influence so everyone is a leader.” But what is often eclipsed by the bright shine of leadership is the importance of following. How we follow is more important than how we lead.

Jesus only makes a few calls for people to lead in the gospels, but he calls all of us to follow.

Sermon intro

Mark 2:13–17 NLT

Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him. Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Pray.

Everyone has a place to serve

When I look at this passage, I am amazed that Jesus would go to Levi and invite him to be a disciple.

Levi’s loyalties are in question - he betrays Israel for personal profit and Rome.

Levi’s job means he is despised by most Jews (the people Jesus is trying to reach)

Levi’s social circle is unacceptable company to “good people”.

But Jesus isn’t dissuaded by other people’s opinions. He sees in Levi ministry and kingdom potential so he goes invites Levi to become a disciple. And Levi goes for it. He gets up from the table, leaving all the taxes he has collected there and just walks out. He so trusts Jesus that he burns all his bridges so he can’t return to that old life and goes all in with Jesus.

And there is a challenge right there to some of you. Some of you want to have your cake and eat it too. Some of you want to hold on to the very things that Jesus wants to save you from and this passage is calling you to throw aside everything that is keeping you from following Jesus properly.

Hebrews 12:1–2 NLT

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Like Levi did, it’s time to get up and leave the old life and start following Jesus.

To be clear, Jesus invites Levi to be a disciple, but not to be one of the 12. The 12 aren’t the 12 yet. There is a growing group of people who are disciples of Jesus and from that group, Jesus would choose 12 out of them for special ministry. What’s amazing is that of all those following him, Jesus selects Levi to be one of those 12. After he was called to be a disciple, Levi lived in such a way that Jesus appoints him to the 12.

But as Levi sits at his tax collectors booth, he hasn’t done anything to merit Jesus’ choice of him. It was by grace. Jesus saw him and invited him and didn’t hold his past against him.

One of the things this story teaches us is that everyone, no matter your past or even your present, has a place of service in the kingdom of God. God has redeemed you and gifted you for the sake of others.

Ephesians 2:8–10 NLT

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

God did not save you so you can hold down the chairs during our church services. He has saved you and gives you gifts so that you can serve.

So how do we best find our fit in kingdom service?

1. Discern our spiritual gifts

2. Discern who we are passionate about

3. Discern how we can serve the people we are passionate about with our spiritual gifts.

The story of Jesus calling Levi (or Matthew) teaches us that if God calls “that guy” to be a disciple and then to be one of the 12 apostles, then there is a place for everyone to serve in the kingdom of God.

Some of you have found your place of service. You are passionate about those you serve, you are using your spiritual gifts and your talents and it’s a joy, as you pastor, to watch you. But some of you are waiting for something. Maybe you are waiting to be asked. If so, I’m asking you today to get involved in something. Volunteer with our kids, or our teens. Start and host a small group. Help us with sound, with cameras or with pro presenter. Join the worship team. Help prepare and serve communion. Organize social events. Help us maintain our facility or help us find ways of being visually creative both for our online presence and our in-person experiences. There are untold ways you can help build the kingdom. All of you have been gifted and called by God and have been invited by me to become more than just passive seat-fillers, but to be co-labourers in the kingdom with us.

After all, if Jesus calls Levi to do that, then he is calling you too.

There is room at the table for everyone

Christianity has always had an aspect of exclusivism to it. Those who are saved and those who aren’t. Those who attend our church and those who don’t. Those who drink Tim Horton’s and those who drink real coffee.

But, because of our sin, we have often extended the exclusivism too far. We closed ranks and we started defining the church by those who looked like us, thought like us and made the same amount of money as us. Everyone else got relegated to “them.”

In a world that talks a lot about inclusivity today, it’s almost hard for young people to imagine that there was a time when, for some churches, if you didn’t go to that church, you weren’t saved, even if you went to another church. It’s hard to believe that leadership was withheld from women and it’s dumbfounding that, either consciously or unconsciously, church leadership was only to be held by white men. And if you were LGBTQ, you were never welcome in the house of God.

And I want to say, “I’m glad those days are over” but unfortunately, I can’t, because they aren’t. For many churches today, who’s in and who’s out is still a major issue. And I don’t have all the answers on it, for sure. But when I look at this passage, what I see is that there is room for everyone at the table with Jesus.

After Levi experiences this call from Jesus, he gets up and starts following Jesus. But after being with Jesus for a while, he invites Jesus and the other disciples to his home and he invites all his friends to come meet Jesus. This isn’t a small, intimate dinner party. This is a block party and everyone is there.

Look at the guest list. You have Jesus, the son of God, the creator of the universe. You have his disciples, including the newest member, Levi. You have a couple of Pharisees who are the self-appointed guardians of the Jewish faith who, often hypocritically, ensure that everyone is following their rules so they don’t break any of God’s rules. And everyone else is lumped into two categories: Tax-collectors and sinners.

And by the way, do you see how despised tax-collectors are that they aren’t lumped in as sinners, but are their own genre of “bad people?” It feels like a prison movie where everyone is telling each other what they are in for: “I’m in for armed robbery,” “I’m in for assault,” “I’m in for murder,” “What are you in for?” “Tax-collection!” “Ooooooh”

But these tax-collectors and other assorted “sinners” are who were attracted to Jesus. Mark tells us that there were many of this kind of people among Jesus’ followers.

So what does Jesus do with these kind of people - the people who are “the least of these?” He grabs some food and sits at the table with them. The amazing thing about Jesus and about this passage is that there is room for everyone at the table with Jesus. Jesus doesn’t sit with just his close followers who agree theologically with him. He sits down with everyone and enjoys their company, as they are.

The church in the West is far too concerned with whether people agree with us and far too unconcerned with just making room at the table for everyone to meet Jesus.

The Pharisees considered it a sin to eat with “tax-collectors and sinners” and I wonder if we have drifted towards that position in our self-righteousness. I wonder if we have become too comfortable with people who look like us, think like us, and believe like us that we have now become uncomfortable with people who don’t.

There is a challenge in this passage for us, both in our corporate church life and in our personal lives to make room at the table for everyone. To be known as a “friend of sinners” like Jesus was and to learn to become comfortable with people who are different than you are.

It’s going to be messy. Not everyone will agree and there are lots of nuances. But Jesus wasn’t afraid of anyone - he just loved everyone. Let’s be like Jesus.

Jesus is on a mission

The Pharisees who witnessed Jesus’ dinner party with the tax-collectors and other assorted “sinners” judged him for associating with such “scum.” Their definition of religion meant excluding these people because the most important trait to the Pharisee is how holy one looked. If you looked at their lives, you would see that from the way they dressed to what rules they made up, everything was about making sure that you looked holy. The heart was irrelevant, only behaviour mattered. And that became the dominant expression of Jewish faith in Jesus’ time. But Jesus came and he started breaking down the walls that the religious leaders had put up.

Lepers were to be avoided because if they had leprosy, it was because of their sin. But Jesus held the lepers in his arms and healed them. Women who bleed were ostracized from their community for being impure. Jesus commends her faith and heals her. An adulterous woman is about to be killed for sin. Jesus saves her life and gives her a second chance. Jesus, while keeping the law, brought hope and healing to a world that was governed by judgment and religiousity.

Jesus was on a mission. He had purpose and direction and what he did, he did by choice out of love for the father and love for the broken. When the Pharisees questioned the disciples about Jesus, saying, “Why does he eat with such scum?” Jesus replied with “ Healthy people don’t need a doctor- sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinner.”

Jesus’ mission wasn’t to be a great teacher. It wasn’t to be a history-making revolutionary. He came to save people. He came to call those who know they are sinners into a life-changing, intimate relationship with God.

And this is both good news for us and bad news.

It’s bad news for the self-righteous. It means they will miss out on the true work of God. It means that until they change and recognize that they too are sinners who need the grace of God, they remain outside of Jesus’ mission.

James 4:6 “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.””

This doesn’t mean that God hates you, or even that he doesn’t love you. In fact, it’s the opposite. This is the loving warning from God that you need to come back to him. You need to turn away from your self-righteousness and humbly submit your life to Jesus. If our story today teaches anything, it’s that everyone has a seat at the table but you have to choose to sit at it. And to sit at the table requires you humble yourself.

But, for those who know they are sinners, Jesus’ mission isn’t bad news. Truth be told, it’s good news - it’s gospel. It says that God loves you so much, that he sent Jesus to save you. It means that you have a seat at the table and that he will empower you with gifts to fulfill your kingdom purpose. It means you will experience forgiveness and love in a way that the proud person who won’t repent can never experience. Jesus is on a mission and this is good news for us.

Conclusion

So what does this passage mean for us?

If you haven’t chosen to follow Jesus, then the words of Jesus to Levi are given to you today as well: Follow Jesus and be his disciple. Let go of that which is holding you back from following him and turn to Jesus.

If you have already said yes to following Jesus, then this passage Is a call to check your heart for pride. When you reflect on how you are living, are you like the Pharisees who are more concerned with looking holy and focused on pointing out other people’s sins? It is so easy for us as Christians to slip into this mode of thinking and the best way to combat it is to remember what Jesus has saved us from.

For those of us who said yes to Jesus, we also must remember that part of our salvation involves purpose. God has gifted you and calls you not just to attend a church but to be involved in making disciples of all nations. You have a kingdom responsibility to discover your spiritual gifts and use them in service to those whom you have a burden for. To use a sports analogy, it’s time to get off the bench and into the game.

The heart of this passage is that Jesus is for the least of these. Those people whose history and even their present causes them to be derided by the religious elite are the very people Jesus came to save. People like you and like me. So let us walk in humility and make room at the table for everyone.

Pray.

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NLT

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.” For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.